410: Trick
by me11
Summary: Episode 10...Halloween and a little witchcraft for our favorite billionaire...oh, and Bruce Wayne is back...PG-13 isn't there just to look pretty by the way!
1. Teaser

**Episode 4.10 – Trick**

_A/N: Okay guys, here is the start of the long promised Halloween episode…just in time for Christmas. I've begun to miss the age-old classic of a freak of the week, but no worries, there's no lame Kryptonite affected mutant in this fic. Enjoy…cue spooky music._

**Teaser**

A large set of double doors swung open with a haunting creak (ironic considering what day it was), presenting the three latest arrivals into the grand ballroom. Lex Luthor blinked impassively at the scene, used to displays far more opulent than a Metropolis Halloween gala. The blonde girl at his side grinned widely however, as did the tall, toothpaste model beside her.

Anna would have worried about the girl, but she knew exactly who Chloe Sullivan was. Clark Kent too…she'd been keeping tabs on Lex Luthor for a while now. It was always smart to be prepared, her mother had told her many years ago, and when you deal with a Luthor you'd better be doubly so. As far as her research told her, Chloe Sullivan was not a concern; she was under his guardianship, that was all. As for the boy…well, he'd be keeping Chloe busy most of the night anyways. So far things were looking good for her plan; Lex would be hers by the end of the night.

She stood off to the side, unnoticed by the three as they descended the marble staircase into the ballroom. Lex still showed no emotion for the party, but Anna's heart gave a little flutter when she saw his lips quirk at the young girls words. Both Lex and the boy chuckled deeply at something the girl said. Anna grabbed a glass of punch and drifted closer to the group, hoping to overhear what they were saying.

"Would you look at some of these costumes?" the boy blushed as he eyed a busty redhead wearing only a white bustier, garter belt, pumps and a pair of wings. "Is she really only wearing underwear?"

"See I told you I wouldn't be overdressed," Chloe told Lex proudly.

"I never said that you would," he countered smoothly, eyeing the other guest with only moderate interest. "If anything I implied that you were a tad _underdressed_."

"It's not that short," Chloe rolled her eyes, smoothing down the purposely-uneven hemline of her Tinkerbell costume. Clark looked down at her legs out of the corner of his eye and couldn't quite help the grin that spread across his face.

"Oh hey look," Clark raised his hand suddenly and waved. "There's Bruce Wayne."

"And you waved him over?" Lex sighed. "Without giving me a chance to hide?"

Anna giggled softly, finding him hilarious and knowing that Lex absolutely detested Bruce Wayne. The second billionaire walked over to them quickly, dressed in what appeared to be a silk Zorro costume…though he held the mask in his hand.

"Greetings Tinkerbell," he greeted Chloe, lifting her hand and pressing a gallant kiss to it. "And who are your friends? They're the best dressed pirates I've ever seen." Anna too couldn't help but wonder at the identical, and tailored, Armani suits that Lex and the boy were wearing.

"Armani models," Lex deadpanned.

"Actually we're bodyguards," Clark corrected with a grin, gesturing to the earpiece that he was wearing. Lex rolled his eyes and pulled a similar contraption out of his pocket, hooking it around his ear like Clark had done.

"Tinkerbell and her bodyguards?" Bruce laughed. "That's different."

"I wanted them to be Lost Boys but neither of them liked the connotation," Chloe admitted.

"And this way I get to wear a great suit," Clark tugged at the collar as he spoke, obviously not entirely comfortable in such an outfit.

"Nothing but the best for my bodyguards," Chloe patted his arm and then turned to Bruce with mock seriousness. "Did you know that there are all kinds of people after me? Apparently pixie dust is good for more than just getting you high."

"Really?" Bruce pretended to be fascinated.

"Oh yes," Chloe nodded, elbowing Clark sharply to do the same. "It's all very exciting."

"Then you'll all have to join me at my table and tell me all about it," Bruce gestured back the way that he'd come from. Chloe and Clark nodded and looked at Lex hopefully.

"You go ahead," Lex smiled at Chloe. "I'm on my coffee break." Chloe laughed and waved goodbye quickly, her and Clark disappearing into the crowd after Bruce Wayne.

Lex blinked impassively at their retreating backs and then wandered over to the bar. Recognizing her chance, Anna quickly set her punch down on a nearby plant holder and crossed the dance floor, stilettos clicking as she did, and came to stand beside him at the bar.

"Scotch on the rocks," Lex told the bartender.

"Make it two please," Anna told the bartender. Lex looked over at her briefly and gave her a short nod. Once the drinks were set down in front of them she held her glass out to Lex. "I'm Anna."

"Hello Anna," he looked at her over the rim of his glass before clinking it once against hers and taking a large sip. Anna did the same, a little disappointed when he looked away almost immediately to scan the dance floor, probably looking for a stacked brunette to spend the night with. She had hoped that she wouldn't have to resort to…

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Lex," he replied, not looking at her. Frustrated now, she shot a quick glance in the bartenders direction, making sure that he wasn't looking, and grabbed Lex's arm sharply. He turned to her immediately now, face marred with a deep frown. "What—"

He never finished his sentence. Anna stared deep into his eyes, getting lost in the swirls of blue, never blinking. Lex stared back, his face slackening and his shoulders visibly relaxing, unblinking.

When she finally did blink, Lex shook his head quickly at then caught her gaze again. Anna smiled adoringly at him, and batted her eyelashes once. "Nice to meet you Lex," she giggled.

He smiled warmly at her and reached a hand out, running his fingers through the copper tresses of her hair. "It's _very_ nice to meet you," he returned, his other hand capturing one of hers and pressing a kiss to it.

"Can I ask you a personal question Lex?" she took a tiny step closer to him, her drink now completely forgotten.

"Of course," he nodded eagerly, eyes roaming her face adoringly.

"Do you believe in love atfirst sight?" she asked him, stepping closer still. Lex's gaze moved from her eyes to her ruby red lips.

"Yes," he answered, leaning in and pressing his lips to hers.

TBC…


	2. One

**Chapter One**

_A/N: So I know that it's been a long time since I've updated, but come on...it was Christmas and I had exams. I'm back now though so here's the first chappy, and I'm working on number two already, so hopefully sometime this weekend it will be up. I've been reading some spoilers on the net (**STOP READING THIS A/N IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED!!!)** and while I am disappointed with the lack of Chlex on Smallville, I do like the idea of Chloe learning THE secret...hint hint..._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

"…come-hither stare, it's witchcraft…"

Clark and Chloe weaved their way around the various couples on the dance floor, trying to follow the fancy steps. Or rather, _Clark_ was trying to follow them, Chloe already knew how. Mostly she was just focused on keeping her feet from being trod on. The house band played the old song with a sultry jazz beat, and despite the occasional foot smushing, Chloe was having a blast. Clark spun her out playfully and then pulled her back towards him. They both laughed when she landed against his chest with an "oomph", rather harder than they had intended.

"We're going to hurt somebody," Clark winced sympathetically, knowing that for her it probably felt like running into a steel wall. "Probably you." Chloe totally agreed and they slowed their steps down, not attempting anything too fancy.

"This is fun," Chloe beamed up at him.

Clark nodded. "We don't really know anyone though," he pointed out, glancing around the room and not really seeing a familiar face. "Besides Bruce Wayne that is."

"Yeah but I've got you here, and Lex," she replied. "That's all _I_ need."

Clark beamed down at her now, feeling his cheeks heat up slightly while she watched him. Chloe finally tore her eyes away and he had to suppress a sigh of relief; he was so sure that he'd do or say something to embarrass himself.

"So," he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Do you have any plans for next Friday?"

"Oh yeah actually," she beamed up at him again, looking happy. "I've got a date."

"What—who? I mean," he tried to sound less shocked. "Who are you going out with?"

"Cooper Harris," she told him.

"The newspaper guy?" Clark asked, knowing damn well which Cooper Harris she was talking about…the same guy that had been hitting on her in class the day they flew to the Cayman Islands.

"Yes," she rolled her eyes, _knowing_ that he knew damn well who she meant. "We're going to Metropolis for dinner."

Clark nodded, deciding that he didn't really want to hear more about Cooper Harris just then. "Where is Lex anyways?" he asked instead, hoping to change the subject. "I haven't seen him in a while."

Chloe frowned and looked around too. "I don't see him," she paused. "Songs over. Should we go look for him?" Clark considered it briefly, and hearing that the next song was a pulsing, upbeat number, he nodded vigorously, not really wanting to embarrass himself by trying to dance.

They walked off of the dance floor and looked around again, mutually deciding to head towards the bar and see if he was there…it was Lex Luthor that they were looking for after all. But Lex wasn't at the bar, nor was he at the food tables. Chloe and Clark both frowned now.

"He wouldn't have left would he?" Clark asked her. "Maybe we should call his cell phone."

Chloe shook her head. "No, if he's still here and we called his phone we'd look like complete idiots. Let's just look around one more time." Clark shrugged and they once again walked around the large ballroom, eyes peeled for Lex's familiar form. Fifteen minutes later they once again ended up at the bar, still without their bald billionaire.

"Now can we call him?" Clark asked her. Chloe nodded this time.

"My phone is in my coat," she told him.

"Let's go find the coatroom then," Clark led her back towards the double doors that they'd entered through and they slipped out of the ballroom and into a marble floored hallway.

"I have a feeling that the coatroom is that way," Chloe pointed down the hall at where a sign hung from the ceiling, reading "Coatroom".

"You're so smart Chloe," Clark sighed mockingly. Chloe laughed and led the way down the hallway in the direction of the sign.

* * *

Lex couldn't seem to wipe away the persistent smile that spread across his face, and he honestly didn't want to. Anna smiled back at him and tried to smooth her skirt back down around her thighs. She brushed her fingers quickly through her hair and retied the apron around her waist. Around them rows of coats hung on the walls, once monitored by the coat check guy, who had easily disappeared when Lex had slipped him a hundred dollar bill. He kept his eyes locked on her face while he re-buckled his belt, unable to tear his gaze away. She was just so beautiful, perfect in every way, from her shining red hair down to her black stiletto shoes.

"What?" she laughed finally. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're beautiful," he told her mushily, a small part of him realizing how uncharacteristic that was and an even bigger part of him not caring. She blushed and thanked him. Lex reached out and ran a hand through her silky locks, sighing contentedly when she pressed her lips against his once again.

"So," she looked deep into his eyes. "Do you still believe in love at first sight?"

Lex felt his head grow cloudy for a moment, before it suddenly cleared, with only one thing on his mind. He took in her ruby red lips and emerald green eyes. "I do now," he answered her…honestly. "I never thought that I could love someone so quickly."

"Really?" she teased, smoothing his lapels down. "Never?"

"Never before you," he assured her. "I've never seen anyone the way I see you. It's the strangest feeling…I'm so happy that I just want to tell the entire world."

"Then let's tell them," she urged, grabbing his hands and pulling him in the direction of the door. "We can shout it from the rooftops!"

"Or we could release a press statement," he joked, reaching for the door handle. "So everyone hears it."

Anna laughed and slipped her arm around his waist while he pushed the door open. A small shriek of surprise greeted them and Lex tore his eyes away from Anna to see Chloe and Clark standing on the other side. Chloe's hand was outstretched, as if she were going to open the door. Lex smiled hugely at them.

* * *

"Lex!" Chloe finally managed to get out. Her shock at seeing him there faded quickly into something else entirely when she noticed his rumpled suit and the girl's disheveled appearance.

"Chloe!" Lex was oddly chipper. Chloe tried to conceal her frown while she looked over the girl; she was pretty enough, her eyes a shocking green, and she wore a French maid outfit, complete with thigh-high fishnet stockings. But she was a redhead…

"We've been looking everywhere for you," Clark told him (Chloe had almost forgotten that he was there). "You've been in here the whole time?"

"Yeah," Lex nodded, grabbing the girl by the hand and pulling her forward. "I want you two to meet Anna. Anna this is Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan."

Anna stuck her hand out quickly and shook Clark's hand, giving him a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you Clark," she chirped, her voice a little too melodic and reminding Chloe of Snow White. "You too Chloe. It's just so great to meet Lex's friends."

Chloe blinked at her, trying desperately not to scowl. The girl had been extremely nice so far, but there was just something about her that Chloe didn't like…and it wasn't just the fact that she was sleazy enough to join Lex in the coatroom after just meeting him.

"Um, Anna," Clark noticed Chloe's silence and tried to break the ice. "Are you from around here?"

"Oh no," she shook her perfect little head, waves of black hair flying in every which direction. "I just moved here from Hartford. You're almost the first people that I've met here."

"Almost," Chloe muttered, shooting Lex a disapproving look. He didn't seem to pick up on it though and just gave her a brief smile before turning an adoring gaze to Anna. Chloe and Clark both shifted uncomfortably, feeling awkward just standing there while Lex and Anna made sickly googoly eyes at each other. They both knew what had just happened in the coatroom, and neither wanted to go in there anymore.

"Listen Chloe," Lex managed to tear his eyes away from Anna for a minute. "You and Clark can take the limo back to Smallville whenever you want to leave okay? Anna and I are going to go get a drink."

She nodded stiffly, forcing herself to hold back the "but they have drinks here" comment. She was pretty sure that Lex wouldn't appreciate it…besides, she really didn't want to watch them maul each other.

"How are you going to get home?" Clark asked him innocently, clearly not understanding what Lex was trying to say. Anna giggled nauseatingly and Lex tried not to smirk.

"I'll probably just spend the night at the penthouse Clark," Lex assured him. Clark looked once at Anna before blushing brightly and nodding quickly.

"Okay," Clark chuckled awkwardly, averting his eyes and trying to look at anything else. "I guess we'll see you later. Right Chloe?" He nudged her.

"Right," she replied quickly, flashing Lex an incredibly fake smile. Only this time, he didn't seem to notice that it was fake.

"Have fun," Lex squeezed her shoulder once and then he and Anna took off in the direction of the exit doors, without even a glance back.

"Sure will," Chloe muttered, unable to tear her eyes away from their retreating forms. Clark watched too and though they could no longer hear them, they could both clearly see Lex mouth out the words "I Love You" to Anna.

"That was weird," Clark finally sighed.

"No," Chloe shook her head and watched Anna suspiciously. "Lex agreeing to wear an earpiece was weird. That was Wall of Weird."

* * *

"Where's Mr. Luthor?" Benny, the driver, asked with a frown while he held the door open for Chloe.

She scowled and climbed into the limo. "Lex won't be joining us tonight Ben," she rolled her eyes. "He made a new…friend." Benny quickly adopted the same concerned look that Clark had been wearing since Lex had left them. Apparently the driver was also familiar with Lex's history with women…homicidal and greedy as they usually turned out to be.

Clark slid into the car after her and Benny closed the door behind them. They sat in silence for several minutes, staring at each other in shock and trying to understand what had just happened. "It's not the fact that Lex went home with a stranger that gets me," Clark finally blurted out. "It's the fact that they were so…"

"Gross?" Chloe supplied, feeling the same way that he did.

"Yeah, that's the perfect word for it," Clark shuttered at the memory. "They were acting like they were completely in love with each other."

"I was waiting for them to break out with the nicknames," Chloe nodded.

"He can't _really_ be in love with her can he?" Clark asked.

"I hope not," Chloe shook her head thoughtfully. "But then he does have horrible taste in the women that he tends to fall for. Maybe he expresses it by acting like a fawning fourteen year old boy."

"I don't know," Clark shook his head too. "He really loved Helen and he never acted like that…but he did with Desiree Atkins!"

"So it's meteor induced," Chloe said decidedly. "It's the only feasible answer. That Anna must be a meteor mutant and she's playing some kind of mind game with Lex."

"She said that she was from Connecticut though," Clark remembered.

"Oh well, if she said it then it _must_ be true," Chloe snarked and pressed the intercom button, signaling the driver. "Back to Smallville please, Benny."

The car began to move moments later, steering them resolutely to the Interstate and back home. "You think she's lying?" Clark asked her, with the look of someone who'd been naively betrayed.

"They always seem to be don't they?" Chloe sighed.

"Maybe she's just trying to protect her secret," Clark muttered, looking down at his hands. Chloe looked over at him and was suddenly hit with a bombardment of memories; strange occurrences and a repetitive theme of Clark being evasive.

"Which is fine Clark," she put her hand on his arm briefly, meeting his eyes before quickly changing the subject. "But if she's messing with Lex…you know what tends to happen to him."

"I know, you're right," Clark smiled faintly, moving his hand to cover her own. Chloe shifted a little uncomfortably and felt the once-familiar sensation of her cheeks flushing under his gaze. It had been a while, but she was realizing that maybe those feelings hadn't really gone away, at least not completely. But right now they had more important things to worry about. "If she's up to anything we'll figure it out before things go too far."

Chloe nodded, grateful that he wasn't writing this off as just another of Lex's conquests…not that he'd had too many of them lately, at least that she was aware of.

* * *

November 1st broke through sunny and unseasonably warm for the time of year. Chloe was bitter about it from the get go; she thought that with Lex acting so eerie the weather should compensate and be gloomy. At least that was how _she_ felt when she forced her eyes open at six thirty in the morning. "Maybe it was all a weird dream," she muttered hopefully. She slipped out of bed and trudged her way blindly to the bathroom, climbing into the shower and turning the water as hot as she could bear.

Thirty minutes later she was making her way into the dining room for breakfast…and coffee. No matter how concerned she was about Lex's walk on the weird side, she still needed her coffee to survive. The butler had luckily learned to always offer her a first cup before he tried to greet her. She grabbed the giant mug from his outstretched hands and gulped it back as fast as she could. Once it was all gone she sighed contentedly and looked up at the butler, who was watching her with raised eyebrows.

"Good morning Walden," she greeted him finally; smiling as best she could while still wondering about Lex.

"Good morning Miss Chloe," he returned, addressing her in the way that she hated but had given up fighting. "Did you sleep well?"

"Fine, thanks," she looked at him hopefully and poured herself a second cup of coffee as she spoke. "Is Lex here?"

"No Miss," Walden shook his head. "He phoned about fifteen minutes ago though, and said that he would be back this evening. He'll be here for dinner tonight. Do you have plans already?"

Chloe shook her head. "I'll be here," she assured Walden. He nodded and excused himself, leaving her to the mountainous pot of coffee and an array of breakfast foods to choose from.

Chloe sighed and took a large bite out of a red apple.

* * *

"So he's still not back yet?" Clark asked her once they'd gotten to school. They walked down the hallway towards her locker, so she could pick up her biology textbook.

"He'll be back tonight," Chloe told him, pulling the massive textbook out of her locker and trying to cram it into her messenger bag. Clark noticed her struggle and pulled the book out of her hands, adding it to the pile of books that he was already carrying. "Thanks."

"No problem," Clark grinned. "So…do you think he'll bring her over?"

"No," Chloe shook her head, a lot more confidently than she actually felt. "I think we may have overreacted last night."

"You do?"

"Yeah," she nodded and they continued down the hallway towards her bio classroom. "It's not like it's the first time that Lex has picked up a girl at a party. For all we know he does it all the time."

"I don't think so Chloe," Clark shook his head. "You heard what he was saying to her…that's not like Lex. There's definitely something going on…she's not even his type. Lex doesn't really go for redheads."

"Maybe he's broadening his horizons," she defended. "Maybe he—oh screw it! You're right, he's gone insane…and not like last time either."

"Who's gone insane?" a voice asked from behind them. Chloe and Clark both jumped slightly at the intrusion and turned around. Cooper gave them a small wave and fell into step beside them.

"Oh…just a friend," Clark stammered, averting his eyes.

"And we were just kidding," Chloe added, giving Cooper a warm smile and noting how cute he looked in the sweater he was wearing. "How was your weekend?"

"It was okay," he shrugged. "I had to take my little brother trick or treating though."

"That sounds fun," Boy-Scout-Clark smiled encouragingly.

Cooper shrugged. "I guess," he agreed. "What did you do?"

* * *

Chloe spotted an empty lunch table and quickly navigated her way over to it before the math geeks could take up residence there. She smiled in satisfaction and set her tray down, taking immense pleasure when Dewey Lewis pushed his broken glasses back up his nose with a frown and went of in search of another table. She put her bag on the seat beside her, to save it for Clark, and opened her milk carton.

"Hi!" Cooper sat down in the seat on her other side and she jumped slightly, splashing a bit of milk onto her tray. Why did he keep doing that? "You're jumpy today."

"That's because you keep sneaking up on me," she snarked, wiping up the spilt milk with a napkin and then taking a sip out of the carton.

"I don't mean to," he grinned. "Whenever I see you I just can't help but come over."

"You see me everyday," she blushed.

"But it's the _best_ part of my day," he reached out and let his fingers brush over the top of her hand briefly before changing the subject. "Also, I wanted to make sure that we're still on for Friday?"

"You bet," she nodded and grinned, beginning to forget about the other students milling around them. Cooper returned the grin.

"Very cool," he nodded and checked his watch. "I've got to get to the Torch, I've got a ton of work to do on this weeks issue. But before I go…" he picked his backpack up off of the floor and set it on the table in front of him. "I've got something for you."

"A present?" she asked eagerly, trying to see into the open bag.

"Yes, but you have to close your eyes," he instructed her. Chloe rolled her eyes good-naturedly and then shut them. "And hold out your hands." She cupped her hands out in front of her and forced herself not to look. He pressed something cool into them. "I saw this and thought of you."

She opened her eyes quickly and looked down. Another smile spread across her face; he'd given her a Starbucks Iced Cappuccino…the kind in the bottle. "Thank-you," she laughed. Cooper grinned.

"You're welcome," he hopped up off of his chair. "Now I've really got to go." She was surprised when he bent over and kissed her cheek quickly before straightening back up and flashing her a mega-watt grin that rivaled the ones that Clark gave. "I'll see you later."

"Bye," she mumbled, feeling her cheeks heat up again, while he left. She was suddenly aware of other the students now. A minute later Clark walked into the cafeteria and headed straight over to her.

"What's up?" he asked, noting her red cheeks.

"Nothing," she lied.

* * *

Chloe waved goodbye and stood against the doorframe until the Kent's blue truck pulled out of the driveway. Once he was gone she pushed open the heavy doors and was greeted by Walden. "Hello Miss Chloe," Walden nodded imperiously…Lex must be back.

"Hey Walden," Chloe smiled.

"Mr. Luthor has just arrived," Walden continued. "He and his guest are in the study."

"Guest?" Chloe asked him with a frown. 'Don't let it be—'

"A Miss Anna," Walden clarified. Chloe groaned, not bothering to try to hide her reaction from the butler, he wouldn't tell anyways.

"Thanks," she muttered and dropped her bag on the staircase quickly before she made her way to the study. She followed the familiar route until she came to the telltale doors, which were left ajar. "Hey Lex," she greeted, pushing the doors all the way open. "Walden said—"

Lex tore himself (literally) away from Anna, who had thankfully changed out of the French maid costume and was now wearing a fitted gray suit that complemented her hair nicely. Anna wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, like a seventh grader, and Chloe had to suppress a gag. "—sorry," Chloe finished, averting her eyes. "I can come back later."

"No Chloe I'm glad you're here," Lex shook his head and grabbed Anna by the hand (the one not covered in slobber), pulling her over to where Chloe was standing frozen in the doorway. "Come on in. I—_we_ have something to tell you."

Chloe had a strong feeling that she didn't want to hear what he had to say, but still she walked farther into the room and stood in front of him, trying to ignore Anna's adoring gaze entirely. But the girl was bouncing around so much that she was almost vibrating and it was _really_ distracting. 'Maybe they _are_ high.'

"Chloe," Lex dropped Anna's hand and grabbed both of Chloe's shoulders, looking at her seriously.

"Lex," she drawled, raising her own hands to pat his comfortingly, hoping desperately that he would snap out of whatever weird role he was playing.

Instead Lex broke into a smile, one of his genuine, heart melting, I-Took-Over-Fryor-Pharmaceuticals smiles. "Chloe, Anna and I are getting married."

It was at that point that Chloe realized that it was impossible for the ground to open up and swallow you when you most wanted it too. That heart melting feeling changed quickly into something less pleasant, and her stomach seemed to drop like it was made of lead. Before she could stop herself a loud chorus of laughter spilled out of her mouth, echoing through the otherwise silent stone room. Anna frowned at her and Lex removed his hands from her shoulders as if he'd been burnt.

"I-I'm sorry," Chloe managed to stop laughing. "I thought you just said that you were getting married."

"I am," Lex nodded. "This Saturday."

"Again?" Chloe blurted and then shook her head. "I mean, you are?"

"Does she not understand?" Anna asked Lex, as if Chloe weren't there.

"She understands," Lex looked at Chloe bitterly. "She just doesn't approve."

"I didn't say that," Chloe said hurriedly. She _didn't_ approve, how could she, but she didn't want Lex to be mad at her. She had to help him, and pushing him away wasn't going to do that.

"You didn't have to," Lex returned coolly. "I can see it all over your face."

"Lex that's not—"

"Apparently I was wrong in thinking that you'd be happy for us," Lex cut her off.

"I am!" Chloe lied…convincingly. "I was just surprised, really. I think it's great."

"See Lex," Anna cooed and threw her arms around Chloe in a sickening embrace. "I told you she would be excited!"

Chloe could see Lex eyeing her and so she deliberately hugged Anna back and returned the girls bright smile with one of her own. Lex slid his arm around Anna's waist once the two girls had pulled apart.

"You were right," he said to Anna, looking suspiciously dreamy. "I'm sorry I got mad at you Chloe. I hope you'll forgive me."

"O-of course," Chloe nodded awkwardly. "So…_this_ Saturday?"

"You bet," Anna squealed and kissed Lex excitedly.

"That's…soon!" Chloe struggled. "Do you think you'll have everything together by then?"

"I have some people on it," Lex waved his hand dismissively.

"That's right," Anna clapped her hands together excitedly and Chloe had to force herself not to smack the redhead right upside the head. "And tomorrow after school you have to come straight back here okay? The seamstress will be here and you have to get fitted."

"Fitted?" Chloe frowned. "For what?"

"For your bridesmaids dress silly—oh no!" Anna turned to Lex apologetically. "You wanted to tell her. I'm sorry Pookie."

Chloe gagged silently but luckily neither noticed her. "I forgive you," Lex kissed her cheek and Chloe was willing to bet a lifetime supply of coffee that the word "Shnookums" actually left his mouth. "Chloe we'd like you to be the maid of honor."

"That's so—I mean wow," Chloe tried lamely to sound excited, honored and not at all revolted. "Thank-you, but are you sure that you don't have any family or girlfriends that you want? It is your wedding after all, and you only get married once." 'Unless you're Lex.'

"Oh none of my friends live around here," Anna giggled. "And if we're going to be friends than we need to do things together. Please Chloe, we really want you to be a part of this."

"Sure," Chloe grinned and used the tone that she'd long ago labeled "Pacifying Lana". Anna squealed again and launched herself at Chloe, hugging her tightly one more time. Lex gazed adoringly at his wife-to-be and it was about as much as Chloe could take. "Well, I have some homework to do," Chloe lied with a huge smile. "So I'll just go get that out of the way and let you two spend some time alone. I'll see you at dinner."

"Oh Chloe, we're going to miss dinner tonight," Lex informed her offhandedly on her way out. "We have to take the chopper to Edge City and let Lucas in on the news."

"We want to make sure that he'll be here this weekend," Anna explained. "I just can't wait to meet him. I know we're all going to be one big happy family!"

Chloe suppressed another gag and fled the room when they started to make out. She reached her bedroom in record time, closed the heavy door behind her, and pulled out her cell phone. She punched in a number and waited. She was going to need some help with this.

TBC…


	3. Two

**Chapter Two**

_A/N: Here's the next chapter. Irealize that none of you likeAnna...that's kindof the point! :0) Justso you know, I'venever beento Boston (probably never will) andhave no idea what papers they have inMass. so the names I mention won't be right (unless by some freak coincidence I got them right). Also, I'm not surehow far towns arefrom each other in that state, but it's not very big (at least not compared to what I'm used to driving across) so travel timesmay be off as well. Cool? Cool._

* * *

"Chloe calm down," Clark did his best not to chuckle too loud. He was stretched lazily on the couch in his loft, watching Chloe pace back and forth across the floor. "You're wearing a groove in the floor."

She wasn't but she seemed to get the point anyways. "Calm down?" she stopped pacing and turned on him instead. Oops. "Why don't you get a little more worked up about this? _Do_ you remember what happened the last two times that he got married? _Do you_?"

"Yes I remember Chloe," Clark climbed to his feet. He _was_ worried about Lex, and he remembered damn well what happened the last two times, but at that moment he was more worried about Chloe giving herself a stroke. He led her to the couch sternly and made her sit down. "But you're going to give yourself an ulcer if you don't calm down a bit."

She huffed in annoyance but took a deep breath and looked like she was making some sort of attempt to calm down. Clark sat down beside her. "We have to do something Clark," she began again, this time without the gaspy hitch that came to her voice when she was really upset. "Something is going on here and we can't just let him marry her without knowing what she's doing to him."

"We'll do something," Clark assured her. "Now, first of all, how much time do we have?"

"The wedding's on Saturday," Chloe rolled her eyes. "Did I tell you that they're in Edge City tonight telling Lucas? Anna was going on and on about how she wanted us to be a part of the wedding, and that we could all be one big happy family! I just about made me sick—"

"Okay," Clark stroked her hand soothingly, not really wanting her to go off on another tangent. "So we have until Saturday…that's five days."

"That's not much time Clark—"

"We've worked faster before," Clark sighed. He was finding her behaviour particularly strange; it wasn't like her to panic, and it really wasn't like her to panic over Lex. They both knew that Lex Luthor could take care of himself…and yet she was on the verge of hyperventilating. "We can do it now."

"I guess so," she muttered, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"So I guess the first thing that we need to do is find out more about Anna," Clark continued, ignoring her pouting and _really_ ignoring the nagging voice in the back of his head that kept wanting to point out reasons why Chloe was so bitter about Lex getting married (besides the obvious of course). "She said that she's from Hartford right? Maybe we could start there."

"We need to know her last name first," Chloe rolled her eyes. "Believe it or not Lex never mentioned it. Come to think of it he probably doesn't even know it! That is just so like him…"

Clark rolled his eyes.

* * *

Lucas blinked once at his brother and the redhead in front of him. "Married?" he repeated. Lex nodded and the girl beamed hugely at him. Lucas couldn't help it, he started to laugh, leaning forward onto his knees and struggling for breaths in between. Lex frowned.

"Lucas!" he snapped, shooting a soothing glance at the girl –Anna, Lucas remembered—to reassure her. Lucas's chuckles slowly died down and he pulled himself back into his own version of the Luthor mask.

"Married?" this time he managed not to laugh.

"Yes," Lex nodded.

"_This_ Saturday?"

"Yes," Anna chirped.

"To you…who are you anyways?" Lucas shook his head at the girl.

"I told you, her name is Anna," Lex gritted his teeth.

"Anna who?" Lucas snapped back. Lex blinked back at him and Lucas knew immediately that Lex had no idea what the girl's last name was. "I guess I need to wait for the invitations to come out then."

"Oh don't be silly," Anna swatted Lucas's arm playfully, seemingly not concerned at all that her fiancée didn't know her last name. "Anna Anderson. Ask him Lex."

"We would like you to be in the wedding party Lucas," Lex almost looked pained when the words came out of his mouth. "We were thinking you could be best man." Lucas almost burst into hysterics again, but the eager look on Anna's face, and the nervous one on Lex's, stopped him.

"What about Clark?" Lucas asked, surprised that Lex's closest male friend wasn't asked first. Or maybe he said no…

"We were wanting to keep the wedding party in the family," Lex replied. "You're family…technically."

"Oh will you do it?" Anna latched onto his arm like a big red leach.

"Sure," Lucas replied immediately, trying to shake her off.

"Sure?" Lex echoed skeptically.

"Yeah sure," Lucas shrugged. "All of the times you've gotten married and I never got to see it. This time I will."

"Okay then," Anna released his arm and grabbed Lex's hand, pulling him to his feet. "You have to be at the mansion tomorrow at three to get fitted for your tux. Can you make it?"

"I'll be there," Lucas nodded dryly, already not liking this girl. The worst part though was the way that she was hanging off of Lex…and Lex was making an abnormal amount of googly eyes at her in return.

"Perfect!" Anna clapped her hands and threw her arms around Lucas's neck, pulling him into a tight hug.

"Well," Lex seemed to have gotten over his shock and found his voice again. "We should be going, lots of calls to make tonight I'm afraid."

"Sure," Lucas nodded almost gratefully and led them to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye," Anna chirped and flounced out into the hall. Lex paused in the doorway.

"Seriously Lucas? Because if you're going to mess this up—"

"I'll be there," Lucas assured him. "See you tomorrow." He closed the door on Lex then and smirked. "Like I'd miss this."

As soon as the elevator doors closed on Lex and Anna, Lucas walked straight over to the kitchen counter. He flipped open a black address book and grabbed the telephone, dialing in the long distance number as quickly as he could.

"Hello?" Chloe's voice answered over the line.

"What the hell is going on?"

* * *

"Okay, bye," Chloe sighed and clicked off her cell. She turned to Clark. "That was Lucas."

"What did he want?" Clark struggled not to scowl at the mention of Lex's insane brother.

"He's concerned about the wedding too," Chloe told him, disbelief written across her face.

"Something is really wrong with this girl if even Lucas thinks something's up," Clark shook his head.

"Well Lucas may be an incredibly large thorn in society's side, but he has his uses," Chloe told him. When Clark look confused she smirked. "He got us a last name…Anderson."

"Anna Anderson," Clark frowned. "Why does that sound…"

"Familiar?" Chloe laughed. "Anna Anderson was the girl who came forward with claims of being the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov. She was an imposter, of course."

"Do you think that this Anna knew that?" Clark asked.

"Probably," Chloe nodded. "I doubt Anna Anderson is her real name anyways. But at least it's somewhere to start. We'll look up all of the Anderson's in Hartford and then go from there."

"What if she's lying though?" Clark asked. "Looking them up isn't going to help much if she is."

"We have to start somewhere," Chloe sighed. "We'll do that tonight and tomorrow I'll try and sneak a set of fingerprints to my contact at the lab. Maybe a DNA sample too."

"All right," Clark sighed and opened up his laptop, typing in a search for the Hartford White Pages. Chloe sat down beside him with a sigh. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Chloe knocked tentatively on the door to the Torch. "Come in," Cooper called frantically from the other side. Chloe frowned but pushed the door open. She almost gasped in shock at the disaster area she found on the other side. There were papers strewn everywhere and Cooper and another guy were rushing around from desk to desk, scanning, printing and trying to get various machines to work. "Oh hey," he smiled at her and stopped, standing in the middle of the room and looking unusually helpless. "What's up?"

"What's going on in here?" Chloe asked, looking around.

"Oh, nothing," Cooper shook his head. "Just trying to make tomorrow's deadline. It's been a little hectic lately, two of my storywriters quit last week…hockey season, you know. Ben and I have been trying to pick up the slack, but… so what's up?"

"I um…I actually came to ask for a favor," Chloe felt guilty asking now that she saw how frazzled he looked. She _was_ going to ask to use the computers… "But you're kind of busy right now."

"Not too busy for you," Cooper assured her, sitting down into his chair with a relieved sigh. "What do you need?"

"Could I borrow the rolodex for a couple of days?" he raised an eyebrow at that. "I just need to get in touch with some of my old contacts and I don't have all of the numbers." Cooper shrugged and handed her the massive Rolodex; she was pleasantly surprised that he trusted her so much with something so important to the paper.

"Is something wrong Chloe?" he asked.

"No," she lied. "It's just…Lex is getting married on Saturday."

"Really?" Cooper looked surprised. "I didn't know he was getting married. You never mentioned it."

"That's because they got engaged yesterday," Chloe ground her teeth. "He's marrying some girl that he met at the Halloween thing on Sunday."

"Whoa," Cooper sat up straighter now. "I know that he's had a history of impulsive behaviour, but isn't that a little weird?"

"Clark and I think so," Chloe nodded. "And so does Lucas Luthor. We're looking into it."

"I'll help you out if you want," Cooper handed her a piece of paper and a pen. "I can't tonight, we'll be working on this paper most of the night, but tomorrow. Write down what you know about her and I'll let you know if I find anything."

"Thanks Cooper," she sighed and scribbled down Anna's name and where she claimed to be from. "Clark and I already called all of the Anderson's in Hartford but we didn't find anything yet. I have some fingerprints and stuff that I'm going to bring to the lab today."

"Anna Anderson," Cooper read the paper and frowned. "Like the Anastasia girl."

"Oh yeah," Chloe rolled her eyes. "Apparently they're both imposters."

"I'll see what I can find," he assured her. Chloe nodded thankfully.

"Great, thanks," she climbed to her feet and fidgeted with the pen. "There's one more thing…see on Friday there's supposed to be a rehearsal dinner."

"Oh," he looked disappointed but managed to cover it up quickly. "That's fine, we can reschedule."

"Or," she could feel herself blush. "We could go to the dinner, I am allowed to bring an escort."

"Sure," he nodded and grinned in relief, his dimples showing now. She couldn't help but notice how cute he was.

"Great," she blushed again and set the pen down. Cooper jumped to his feet.

"I'll walk you out," he offered, leading her to the door. She smiled up at him and stepped out into the hall. "See you later."

"Bye," Chloe nodded. She was about to turn away when he leaned down quickly and pecked her on the lips, surprising her. Chloe froze momentarily, but the next time he leaned down she met his lips readily, the second kiss much more intense than the first.

"Bye," he pulled away finally and she giggled internally at the blush that spread across his cheeks.

* * *

"Chloe!" a twenty-something man in a white lab coat greeted in surprise.

"Hi Gary," Chloe smiled, walking through the glass lab doors and giving him a quick hug.

"Hi kid," he grinned. "It's been a while since I saw you. What have you been up to lately?"

Chloe hated that question, because lately she didn't have very cheery answers. "Well my dad…" she trailed off, not really wanting to say it out loud. Gary nodded solemnly.

"I heard about Gabe," he told her apologetically. "I'm really sorry about it too, he was a good man."

"Yeah…"

"I heard that you were living with Lex Luthor now," Gary raised his eyebrows at the ziplock bag in her hands. Chloe looked down at the teacup and toothbrush that she had stolen. "Why do I have the feeling that something's up?"

"Because you're psychic," she deadpanned, handing him the bag. Gary peered closer at the china cup. "I was hoping that I could get you to run some prints for me."

"And maybe a DNA sample?" he smirked, gesturing to the toothbrush. Chloe smirked back; Gary was no stranger to the meteor weirdness in town, and he was more than used to Chloe showing up with various artifacts for him to dust, scan, or basically turn inside out. In fact, he'd been the one she got the print sample for Mr. Kent from, as well as the guy that had tested the drugs that Lex had been receiving. "What am I looking for?"

Chloe sighed and told him the Anna story, explaining that the name that they'd been given was phony and they needed some info on her. "The wedding is Saturday at noon," Chloe told him. "So I need it back ASAP, if you can."

"Sure I'll run it after lunch," he promised her. "I'll let you know tonight."

"Great," she pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him, her new cell number. "If I don't answer call the Kent farm and leave a message with Clark, okay?"

"Okay," he nodded.

"Thanks Gary," she nodded gratefully. "I'll let you work…I probably should go back to school."

"Okay," Gary agreed. "But…how are you doing? Without your dad I mean."

"I…okay," she sighed. "I've been laying off the investigating though, so it's been a little duller than usual. This is the first thing I've looked into in a while, and only because I _know_ that something is really wrong with Anna."

"How does it feel?" he asked with a grin, knowing her better than she thought he did. "Getting back on the journalistic trail again?" Chloe shrugged quickly, out of habit, and then tried to hide her snarky grin. She waved goodbye and left; Gary laughed and set about finishing the tests that he was working on.

* * *

Chloe frowned openly, not even trying to hide her disgust at the reflection staring back at her. "I'm not wearing this," she announced to the others in the room, namely Anna and two seamstresses. She flapped her arms up and down, watching as the motion made her look like a big purple freak. The dress itself was made from a violet silk, which was fine, but the cut… "I look like a witch." She raised her hands high above her head and the large bell sleeves fanned out around her, the high neckline and uneven hemline making her look like a witch out of a lame horror movie…only purple.

Anna frowned at the word witch, and re-examined the dress (cloak) on Chloe. "It does seem to engulf you," she admitted. "Maybe we could tighten the sleeves?" The seamstress opened her mouth to reply but the loud bang of the oak doors opening caused all heads to whip around in the direction of the doorway.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Lucas stood framed in the doorway, dressed in an immaculately tailored tux, complete with tails, and several colorful ties and cummerbands in his hand. He frowned at Chloe in disapproval.

"Lucas get out!" Chloe snapped, hating that he was insulting her, even though she knew that he was absolutely right.

"I though Halloween was over Chloe," he shook his head, looking the dress over with a smirk. "Why are you dressed as a witch?"

"Shut up!" Chloe yelped. "And also, see! Even he agrees with me; can't we just find something else—"

"No hey," Lucas strolled over, thrusting the ties and cummerbands into Anna's hands. "Pick a color would you? Maybe you could just take the sleeves off…" he reached out and grasped the dress at Chloe's right shoulder, tearing the horrible sleeve off at the seam. Everyone gasped.

"What are you doing?" Anna cried, fumbling not to drop the items that he'd put in her hands. The seamstresses looked on in horror as he repeated the action with the other sleeve. Chloe smirked, knowing that the dress was looking better already. But the stupid high neckline was still there. Lucas shrugged, not knowing what else to do.

Feeling quite bold, Chloe snatched a pair of fabric sheers off of the nearby table and began to cut the neckline from the top of her right shoulder in a diagonal line to underneath her left arm. She handed the sheers to Lucas for him to cut the back, and once they were done the dress was one shouldered with a lot more exposed skin. Anna scowled at them in disapproval, thrust a violet tie and cummerband at Lucas and stomped out of the room.

Chloe and Lucas both smirked, and Chloe gave the seamstresses directions on how to finish her dress.

* * *

"Wasn't Lex mad?" Clark asked in awe later that night. Chloe and Lucas had joined him in the loft, waiting for word from Gary at the lab. Lucas snorted.

"Are you kidding?" he rolled his eyes. "He spent twenty minutes trying to explain to us why we had to try harder to get along with Anna."

"Apparently he hadn't seen the monstrosity that she was trying to make me wear," Chloe huffed. "I mean really, considering the fact that she _wears_ clothes you would think that she wouldn't be quite so terrible at selecting them for other people—oh!" Her cell phone rang suddenly and she dived at it. "Hello?"

Clark watched eagerly as she conversed with Gary the Lab Guy. Once she hung up the phone she grinned triumphantly. "Well?" Clark probed eagerly. "What did he find?"

"She's definitely hiding something," Chloe told them. "Her prints matched a set that he pulled up; Serena Gilmore was arrested in Massatuchetts for drugging some Boston socialite named Trent Ford. But she was let off when the evidence mysteriously disappeared. Ford did a swan dive off of his office building the same day that she skipped town. No one's seen her since."

"So what…she just turns up in Metropolis and manages to get to Lex?" Lucas asked skeptically. "And he never did a background check on her?"

"Do you think she could be drugging Lex?" Clark asked. Chloe shrugged and opened Clark's laptop.

"I think we need to find out more about her," she typed the name 'Serena Gilmore' into her favorite search engine and they waited while the site searched. Five links popped up; she opened the first one, an article from the Boston Star. "Salem Woman Arrested in Suspected Drugging of Local Businessman," Chloe read out loud. "Yesterday afternoon Serena Gilmore, Salem, was arrested at her Boston apartment on charges of attempted poisioning and deliberate inhebriation of local businessman Trent Ford. Boston PD found a collection of various potent herbs, that were found in Ford's system, in the apartment. Ford, who had been brought into Boston General Hospital by friends two nights ago, remains in stable condition…"

"That still doesn't tell us much about Lex," Clark shook his head. Chloe agreed and they slowly made their way through the following links. The next three were bogus, one an ad for a sex site featuring the 'fabulous Serena Gils', another a fan site for the Gilmore Girls, and then a broken link. But the fourth site was another article, this time an editorial from the Salem Gazette.

"Local girl Serena Gilmore is being charged for the attempted poisioning of Boston businessman Trent Ford," Lucas read, both him and Clark hunched over and reading over her shoulders. "Police officials are still investigating, and Boston PD spokesmen have not yet announced if the sentence will be increased to attempted murder. Ford remains in hospital in stable condition, and Gilmore remains in police custody…"

"Not much here either," Clark sighed. "Should we try another search?"

"I have a couple more sources I can contact," Chloe sighed. "A cop at Metropolis PD who might be able to get something from Boston—"

"Or we could _go_ there," Lucas suggested, cutting her off.

"Go to Boston?" Clark frowned. "Can't we just tell Lex that she's lying?"

"No Clark," Chloe shook her head. "We need something else besides the fact that she's changed her name. Desiree Atkins was a fake name too but he didn't care."

"She said that she had no family right?" Lucas remembered. "If we went to Salem we might be able to track someone down."

"What if she really doesn't have any family?" Clark asked.

"Someone will have to know her anyway," Chloe couldn't believe that she was agreeing with Lucas. "I think he's right Clark, someone has to go to Salem."

"I can go tomorrow," Lucas shrugged. "I'll just borrow the jet—"

"And where will you tell Lex that you're taking it?" Clark rolled his eyes.

"Disney World—"

"No Lucas, you can't take the jet. Lex can't know about this, and neither can Anna," Chloe turned around in her chair and looked at them sternly. "Also, you aren't going alone."

"Aw," Lucas pressed a hand to his heart. "You're worried about me."

"No it's more like I don't trust you to do this by yourself," Chloe rolled her eyes at his pout. "We'll all go—"

"Chloe we have school tomorrow…" Clark trailed off helplessly, knowing that saving Lex was more important than handing his history homework in on time.

"We'll take a commercial flight," Chloe continued as if she hadn't even heard Clark.

"I don't need the entire Scooby gang with me," Lucas rolled his eyes. "I think I can track down one girl on my own."

"I don't doubt that you can Lucas," Chloe assured him. "But this girl seems to have a way of…getting away with things. If all three of us are there it's going to be a lot harder for her if she finds out, or if someone warns her."

"With Magnet-For-Trouble-Boy there," Lucas gestured at Clark sarcastically. "I'm sure nothing will go wrong."

"Chloe, not to spoil the plan or anything," Clark cut in sheepishly. "But I don't really have the cash for a flight to Boston."

Chloe smirked and reached for her purse, zipping it open and withdrawing her credit card out of her wallet. "It's on Lex," she assured him. "It's only fair, we're going to safe _his_ ass after all."

* * *

"…4581," Chloe finished, reading the number off of her credit card. "Expires 0906. Yes…great, thank-you." She hung up her cell phone and left her bathroom…where she'd been hiding with the water running so no one in the house would overhear her. She slipped her favorite blazer on, picked up her overstuffed backpack, and left her room, running her cover story over and over in her mind.

She found the others in the dining room, Lex, Lucas and Anna, already eating. "Chloe if you don't hurry you're going to be late for school," Anna tutted at her, a fake smile ever plastered on her face. Chloe sent her an equally fake but more snarky smirk in return.

"I was just on the phone with Lois," she lied. "She's going to meet me in Grandville after school."

"You know that you could just take one of the cars Chloe," Lex tore his adoring eyes away from Anna for a moment to shake his head at Chloe. "So that you can drive it back tomorrow."

"That's okay," Chloe ground her teeth together and forced a smile, hating the way that Anna was staring at her. "The bus is fine with me, I'll get some homework done on the way back."

Lex shrugged and went back to his intense study of the various shades of red in Anna's hair. "Speaking of getting the hell out of this cow town," Lucas shoved the last of his pancakes into his mouth and washed them down with some orange juice. "I've got some things to take care of back home. I'll be back Friday morning."

"Fine," Lex still stared at Anna and Chloe was beginning to get a little creeped out by him.

"Have a nice trip," Anna chirped at Lucas, who had pushed his chair out and climbed to his feet.

"Uh, thanks," Lucas mumbled uncomfortably before turning to Chloe with a perfectly planned annoyed expression. "Hurry up and I'll drop you off at school on my way."

Chloe rolled her eyes, also planned, but grabbed an apple from a bowl in the middle of the table and stood as well. Anna jumped to her feet quickly, startling Lex and forcing him to move his gaze, and threw her arms around Chloe's shoulders energetically. "Have a nice visit Chloe," she gushed. Chloe patted her back awkwardly, almost feeling bad for wrecking this for her…_almost_.

"Thanks," Chloe forced out a smile. "See you tomorrow, you too Lex."

"Bye," Lex nodded absentmindedly, his eyes falling adoringly on Anna once more. Chloe sighed and joined an impatient Lucas in the hallway. "Drive safe," he remembered to call after them. Chloe huffed in annoyance; at least he'd remembered.

They strode quickly towards the front doors, where Walden met them with a leather duffle bag in his hands. Lucas took the bag and fished his car keys out of his pocket. "The chopper?" Chloe asked Walden.

"It is waiting at the Kent Farm, Miss," Walden told them, shooting a paranoid glance down the hallway towards the dining room.

"Don't worry Walden," Chloe assured him. "He won't find out." Walden nodded, not looking the least bit reassured. She smiled comfortingly and followed Lucas out into his waiting car.

* * *

They arrived at the Kent Farm ten minutes later, where Clark was waiting on the porch anxiously. Mr. and Mrs. Kent came out when the car pulled up; apparently Clark had filled his parents in on what they were doing. Typical.

"Are you sure about this?" Mr. Kent asked them, referring to the interfering and meddling that they were about to do…not to mention skipping school.

"Dad we can't let Lex marry Anna if she's doing something to him," Clark reminded them. Martha and Chloe nodded and Jonathan sighed.

"Chopper's out back," Jonathan nodded towards the back of the house. "Just please be careful."

"We will," Clark promised him. They all walked around back to where David, Chloe's favorite of all of Lex's pilots, was waiting. "Are you sure Lex isn't going to find out we took this? Doesn't he go into Metropolis every day?" Clark asked as they were strapping themselves in.

"David will have it back at the hanger in an hour," Chloe assured him, having to yell over the roar of the propellers. "And he's working at the Smallville plant all week so that she can get a hold of him for wedding crap."

Clark seemed convinced and pretty soon they were off on their way to Metropolis. By nine o'clock they were already onboard their flight, heading east to Boston.

_TBC..._


	4. Three

**Chapter Three**

_A/N: Okay first off, I would like to apologize to my readers. I just read back through Chapter Two for reference and I realized that I posted it without spell checking part of it! I'm really sorry; and a special 'forgive me' to everyone from Massachusetts for the horrible spelling job I did on your state. I had no idea how to spell it (it's a long name!), and had planned on just spell checking it later…which I forgot to do. So sorry again, I know several of you probably cringed at the way I spelled it…I know I did. I was just so anxious to get the post up, since it was late. I promise to be more careful in the future. Okay:0)_

_Also, sorry about the lack of update…It's actually my spring break this week so I'm a little distracted. Usually my episodes are five chapters long, but this one will be six, because there is still a lot of stuff I want to cover. I hope to get that up soon…seriously. :0)_

* * *

Trees whipped by on either side of the speeding car, tall and green and looming over the ditches of the highway. Their mid-sized sedan took the curves at an almost breakneck speed, Lucas grinning a little in delight at every too sharp corner. Chloe didn't notice, she stared out of her window at the passing landscape, her mind running through their situation over and over again. Salem was only a few more miles away, especially with Lucas driving the rental car the way that he was, but she didn't feel any closer to solving the mystery.

"Chloe?" Clark asked, tapping her shoulder and leaning around her seat from his position in the back. She looked at him in surprise. "We're here," he pointed out the windshield at the town in front of them. She hadn't even noticed that Lucas had parked the car in a parking lot and had already climbed out of the car and was now stretching his legs outside.

"Right," she unbuckled her belt and climbed out after Clark. They looked around the square that they found themselves in; a coffee shop, a couple of banks, what looked like a gift shop, and a Municipal Information building.

"Maybe we should start there," Lucas pointed to the Information building, already crossing the street in that direction. Clark followed obediently and Chloe behind him. They found a young girl behind the counter, gazing intently down at an issue of Cosmo, reading an article about the top 55 Sex Positions. She looked up at them with a brief smile when they entered.

"Hi," she greeted when Chloe walked up to the counter and Clark and Lucas began to collect various maps of the town and surrounding area. "Can I help you find something?"

"Actually," Chloe nodded and smiled her most friendly give-me-information-smile. "I'm trying to track down a girl I know but I'm not sure where to look."

"Okay," she pulled a phonebook out from behind the counter. "What's her name?"

"Serena Gilmore," Chloe replied quickly. The girl visibly paused in her search, turning a pair of dark eyes up at Chloe, looking more than a little uncomfortable.

"S-sorry?" she shook her head. "Who were you looking for?"

"Serena Gilmore," Chloe repeated, slower and more clearly, though she knew that the girl had heard her. Lucas and Clark looked over in interest now, making their way over to join the girls. The girl averted her eyes quickly, just long enough for them to know that she knew something. "What is it?"

"Nothing," she lied…poorly. "She doesn't live here anymore. She hasn't for a couple of years now."

"Yeah…" Lucas prompted. The girl looked petrified now, but Clark smiled encouragingly at her and her shoulders visibly relaxed.

"Look, I don't know if she's your friend or—"

"She's not," Chloe assured her.

"But you're wasting your time," the girl continued, seemingly not hearing Chloe's interjection. "No one knows where she's gone, she just disappeared…no one wants to know either. They don't like to talk about her around here."

"Did you know her?" Clark asked. She nodded.

"She was friends with my sister Clarissa," the girl raised a hand to her mouth and gnawed briefly on her thumbnail, as if trying to decide if she should continue. She dropped her hand. "They were roommates a few years ago, before she went to Boston—" the girl stopped immediately, obviously feeling that she'd said too much.

"It's okay," Clark assured her. "We know about Trent Ford." She seemed to be reassured, but then Clark just seemed to have that ability.

"Serena and Clarissa were roommates," the girl repeated. "And Clarissa used to tell me…okay, Serena had no family around, but apparently when she did they were really weird."

"What do you mean weird?" Chloe asked, knowing from personal experience that the term weird could mean a lot of things.

"They were into to doing, like, spells and stuff," she whispered.

"Spells?" Lucas repeated, unimpressed.

"They thought they were witches?" Chloe almost rolled her eyes at the idea…then again she'd seen stranger things.

"This is Salem," the girl shrugged. "I don't know about the family really, but Serena was really into it too. Clarissa said that she had a room in the basement of the house that they lived in together…where she kept her witch things."

"Do you think that she was a witch?" Chloe asked her, noticing how nervous the girl seemed to be.

"Serena had an uncanny way of getting people to…believe things, to do things," she insisted. "This town has always had rumors of witches, but Serena was the first one that people really got scared of. When she moved to Boston everyone was glad…until we heard about what happened to that Ford guy. No one believes that he wanted to kill himself."

"Do you have any proof? Any way to convince someone that was…affected by her, that she was a witch?" Chloe asked her seriously.

"No," she shook her head. "But my sister might."

"Then we're going to need to talk to her."

* * *

Clarissa Masters peered out suspiciously through the gap in the open door, her eyes appearing just under the security chain. "What do you want?" she demanded, taking in the three strange arrivals. They looked tired and a little rumpled, like they'd been traveling, but they all had a determined air about them.

"We want to know about Serena Gilmore," the girl replied. She was clearly the ringleader of the little fiasco.

"Sorry, can't help you," Clarissa began to close the door.

"Mandy sent us!" the tallest one, the boy, called out before she could. Clarissa paused and then closed the door anyways…but only to unhook the chain. As soon as she opened the door the girl was bursting inside, obviously experienced enough at interrogation to know not to wait outside where a door could be slammed on you at any moment. The tall boy looked down at Clarissa's attire, a long t-shirt that she used as pajamas, and blushed. Clarissa rolled her eyes and strode quickly into her room, slipping on a pair of faded blue jeans. When she reappeared in the living room they were waiting expectantly.

"Well," Clarissa sighed impatiently. "What do you want to know?"

"We know that she was into…witchcraft," the girl answered, looking like it pained her to utter the word witch in an actual conversation. Where was she from anyways? "We just need some proof."

"Proof?" Clarissa repeated, flopping unceremoniously down onto the sofa.

"We need to convince someone that he's being _influenced_ by her," the girl clarified. That made Clarissa sit up, mostly in concern; Serena could be sweet, but when she was threatened she got dangerous.

"You should probably just let it go," Clarissa advised them.

"We can't just let it go," the girl insisted, a little hotly. "She's brainwashed our friend…we have to help him."

"Knowing Serena," Clarissa smirked. "This _friend_ of yours is probably filthy rich and incredibly good looking."

"Well," the second guy, the older one, shrugged. "He's rich."

"Lucas," the girl shushed him…they didn't get along. Or maybe they did, and there was just a little more tension than was normal. The tall boy sighed.

"We really need to stop her Clarissa," he told her sincerely, smiling a little. _He_ was incredibly good looking. "And he won't believe us if we don't have any proof."

"So what you want me to give you a spell book? Maybe some incense? Do you think he would buy that?" Clarissa laughed.

"Why not?" the girl shrugged. Clarissa suddenly felt angry; these kids had no idea what they were playing with, they thought that magic was just a game, just a little thing to make life more fun. They had no idea what girls like Serena, girls like Clarissa, could do.

"Do you know anything about magic Blondie?" Clarissa demanded, climbing to her feet now. "If Serena can make your friend fall for her then she's not going to just let him know what she is. Even if you find proof, and show it to him, he's not going to believe it because he's under a spell. He'll say that she's just playing around at being a witch, that there's no such thing as magic, and that you're just trying to ruin his happiness."

"How do you know that?" the girl demanded.

"Because that's what she did last time," Clarissa told her coolly. "Trent Ford heard warnings from everyone around him too. Do you think that you're the first ones to try and track her down? You aren't. Everyone else just happened to run into tragic accidents along the way."

"We still have to try," the boy insisted. "Please, there's got to be something we can do to stop her." Clarissa frowned at them again. But the cute boy was looking at her with impossibly large blue eyes, and they seemed to really want…

"There might be something," Clarissa mumbled. "Follow me."

* * *

Chloe stuck really close to Clark while they followed Clarissa down a set of stone steps into what appeared to be a cellar. The scent of wet dirt and mold hit her nostrils immediately and her lungs felt a little heavier when she breathed in the earthy air...she had a most unwelcome flashback to being burried alive in a field... Clarissa led them deeper into the cellar and waved her hand absently towards an overhead chandelier; the candles on the chandelier flickered to life, casting an orange glow around the small room. Chloe felt herself gasp not only at the magical display but at the room in general as soon as the light grew bright enough for them to see. Along the dirt walls there were dilapidated looking old shelves, stocked to the brim with ingredients that looked like something Professor Snape would collect. Chloe suppressed a shudder at a jar of eyeballs, floating in what was probably formaldehyde, and forced herself to pay attention to what Clarissa was doing.

Clark, Chloe and Lucas stood as close together as they could without looking like wimps, and watched expectantly while Clarissa grabbed a shovel that was leaning against one of the dirt walls. She tossed the shovel at Clark, who caught it by the handle and stared back at her in confusion. "Dig there," she pointed at an even patch of soil in one corner. "There's a trunk. It's got everything that Serena left behind when she took off. That's the best proof that you're going to find."

Clarissa waited until Clark nodded that he understood and then she left, sweeping up the stairs quickly and causing the lights to flicker as she passed. Chloe swallowed shakily and hurried over to help Clark dig the trunk out. Lucas wandered around looking at the various ingredients along the walls. "Wonder where the cauldron is?" he muttered.

Clark rolled his eyes and began to dig, moving quickly and building up a pile of dirt against the wall. Chloe bit on her lip while she waited. "Don't touch anything Lucas," she warned.

"Don't be a baby," Lucas peered curiously at a shrunken, mummified looking hand.

"You don't know what this _stuff_ can do," Chloe insisted. Lucas snorted and reached two fingers out to prod the hand. Chloe watched while the mummified hand grabbed tightly onto his fingers…Lucas shrieked and batted the hand away. Chloe rolled her eyes but chose not to comment and Lucas decided that it would be better to stand with her and wait for Clark, averting his gaze so she couldn't see him blush.

"Found something," Clark exclaimed, knocking the end of the shovel against something in the ground, making a clunking noise. He dropped the shovel and both he and Chloe crouched down and began to clear the remaining dirt away with their hands, revealing a tin and wooden box. Clark pried it out of it's grave and kicked the dirt pile back into the hole, filling it as best as he could.

"I wonder why she buried it?" Chloe asked, wiping away the last of the dirt.

"Maybe its buried treasure," Lucas suggested dryly.

"Maybe it's dangerous," Clark shot him a look. The trunk was about three feet wide and two feet deep, and there was an old lock on the front that was rusted to the point of being ruined.

"We can't open that in here," Chloe told them. "Let's get out of here and see what we've got."

"I'll carry it," Clark volunteered, picking up the trunk and holding it by the handles on the ends. Lucas led the way out and Clark followed, Chloe brought up the rear. She paused at the top of the steps and looked back down on the room; irregular shadows from the candles flickered across the walls, changing shapes and reaching across the floor like long black fingers. She shuddered and hurried back out into the daylight.

* * *

Chloe buckled herself into her seat beside Clark and leaned her head back against the headrest with a sigh. She closed her eyes tightly, and even though she couldn't see him, she knew that Clark was shifting around uncomfortably beside her. For a guy that seemed to be immune to physical harm he sure was terrified of planes; even if the thing did crash he probably would walk away without even a hair out of place.

"Would you take a pill or something Kent," Lucas snapped from his seat across the aisle. "You're bugging me."

Clark replied something back, which Chloe ignored. She forced her eyes open and glared at them. "Would both of you please be quiet?" she ground out. Clark immediately shut his mouth and Lucas glared back at her. "I'm tired and I don't feel like listening to you two fight…so don't even start."

"No need to get pissy just because we have to wait for the trunk," Lucas rolled his eyes and relaxed against his seat. "It's not like it's our fault we couldn't bring it on the plane."

"It's not that," she lied. Truth was she was nervous about the trunk arriving in Smallville safely. They hadn't been able to take the trunk onto the plane (it didn't help that they didn't know the contents of it), and had been forced to have it FedEx-ed to the penthouse. She'd paid more for overnight delivery, so it would arrive the next day, but she was still concerned.

"It'll be fine Chloe," Clark assured her, patting her hand with his own larger one. Chloe sighed and nodded, trying to believe him. Clark squeezed her hand in his, and when he didn't let go of it she found herself beginning to believe him.

* * *

When a knock sounded on the penthouse door at noon the next day Chloe almost knocked Clark over in her desire to get to the door. Clark braced himself against the hallway wall in shock and watched while she jabbered a mile a minute to the delivery guy, signing an electronic gizmo and accepting the huge box from him. "No one else finds out about this," she told him, slipping him a bill in a denomination large enough to make him nod and wink her way before he disappeared again.

Chloe bolted the door behind him, looking out into the peephole at the hallway in paranoia. "She's getting as bad as Lex," Lucas muttered, hurrying over to take the large box from her. They opened it in the living room (ignoring the stark white rug that covered the wood floor), using the pair of bolt cutters that they'd kept handy since they'd arrived.

"Okay Drusilla," Chloe muttered, shaking the remnants of the lock away. "Let's see what you're hiding." The hinges creaked and flakes of rust fell onto the carpet when she pushed the lid open. They all looked eagerly into the trunk, eyes widening at what they found. When the dust –both literal and metaphoric—settled, even Lucas was looking worried.

* * *

Chloe was pretty sure that she could hear some kind of personalized soundtrack running through her head. Not Clark's ridiculous Mission Impossible theme, of course, but something a little grittier. It was hard to avoid, she'd seen so many movies, and in the movies there was always a cool song playing in the background when the good guys (that was her, Clark, and Lucas) were about to confront the bad guys (that would be Serena) and save the damsel (who…would be Lex). Of course the good guy trio was down to two at the moment, because Clark was at the farm hiding the trunk in what he assured them was a secure location, and Chloe and Lucas were the only two striding purposefully through the halls of the mansion. Clark would join them in a minute, but for now it was just the two of them. She figured that Lucas could still be her sidekick…and she'd have to play superhero until Clark got back (because the guy just had a knack for the heroics).

Walden had told them that Anna –or Serena, or whatever—was in her dressing room. Chloe chocked back a retort about her needing a dressing room and led Lucas there, almost too excited to think straight. They pushed the doors open and listened to them thump against the walls with a satisfied bang. Anna/Serena/She-devil looked up at them in surprise from where she was sitting on a Queen Anne bench, reading what looked like one of the first editions from Lex's study. "Chloe," she greeted, a sickly smile spreading across her face as quickly as the look of surprise had. "And Lucas…you're back early. Good trip?"

"Shut up," Chloe told her, shutting the doors behind them. They had decided that they didn't want Lex to know the awful truth until they got her to confess…in case he 'decided' that he didn't care that she was a witch. He was funny like that sometimes.

"What?" she asked with her best injured-puppy expression.

"She said shut up," Lucas drawled, walking swiftly over to the closet in the room and pulling the doors open.

"What are you doing?" Anna demanded, jumping to her feet and stomping over to him. She grabbed his shoulder but he shook her off easily.

"Just looking for the cauldron," he ripped the assortment of clothes off of the hangers and walked deeper into the closet, looking around the floor and shelves for any evidence.

"Do you use one of those?" Chloe asked her. "Because we didn't find one in Salem, and we thought maybe you brought it with you."

Anna looked a little panicked. "What?" she laughed shakily. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh you know," Chloe waved her hand dismissively and set about searching the rest of the room. "A cauldron…witches use them to mix up potions and stuff. Of course my faithful following of the Harry Potter books could be wrong."

"Witches?" Anna repeated dumbly, her eyes flicking to the door briefly.

"Yes, witches," Chloe gave up all pretenses of friendliness now, and Lucas stopped searching. "Or whatever it is you like to call yourselves…Serena."

They'd been expecting a bit more of a defense from her, and were a little disappointed by the outcome. Serena's face hardened visibly, and her eyes glinted yellow briefly. "I should have know that you two would figure it out," Serena growled, her voice not nearly as pleasant as the tinkling girlish wisp that she's taken to using. "All of the information that I had on you two seems to have been wrong."

"Information?" Lucas repeated…they hadn't expected that.

"Yes, you know," Serena practically snarled. "That thing you little reporters love to find. I thought that you were trying to control that nosiness of yours Chloe."

"What can I say?" Chloe shrugged. "Sometimes I just can't help myself." She meant it.

"Well you were just supposed to be a sweet little sister presence," Serena continued. "My research failed to bring up the fact that you're a lovesick little puppy who would do anything to keep Lex all to yourself."

"What—"

"And you," she spun on Lucas next, making both Lucas and Chloe take a step backwards. "You were supposed to be practically non-existent! A pain in the ass that he wrote a check for once a month to keep out of his life. But you can't stand to have someone else get a piece of the Luthor pie either, can you?"

Lucas didn't say anything; neither did Chloe, most likely because they were both distracted by the freaky feeling that was coming over the room. She associated it with the feeling of static electricity –the air felt a little different than normal, and the hair on her arms was tingling, beginning to stand on end. Lucas could feel it too, she could tell just by looking at him.

"Do you think that you're the first one's to ever figure it out?" Serena seethed. Her eyes began to glow again, this time a creepy shade of gray, almost black. "Clever little Chloe and her boy wonder sidekick…you think you're so smart don't you?" She looked at them each in turn. "We'll see how smart you are when I have you shipped off to a Swiss boarding school, and you cut off and left to deal with the messes you make all on your own."

"Lex would never do that," Chloe shook her head, amazed at the woman's presumptuousness. "It'll never happen, because once we tell him what we've found out, you'll be out of here faster than you can say Voldemort. You stupid bit—"

* * *

Clark hurried down the hallway in the direction of Lex's study, hoping to find Chloe and Lucas in there. He knocked and pushed the door open, but finding the room empty, retreated back to the hallway with a frown. He needed to find them fast, but he couldn't risk super-speeding around the mansion with all of those Luthors out and about…

Clark looked both ways down the hallway quickly; making sure that no one was looking. He activated his x-ray vision and began to scan the mansion…smirking when he spotted three skeletons together in a room on the second level. He hurried down the hall and up the staircase, wondering why he let Chloe talk him into meeting them later. She had just been so insistent that he hide the trunk in a place where no one would find it…

He reached the top of the stairs and turned right, in the direction of the rooms that used to belong to Helen…he supposed they now belonged to Anna, or whatever they were calling her now. Clark couldn't hear any yelling from the hallway, and taking that as a good sign, he didn't bother to activate his super-hearing. He knocked awkwardly on the door; what did you do in a situation like this one. Hello? Can you let me in? I'm here to expose you and your manipulative ways…you witch. He had a feeling that there was really no prescribed etiquette for a situation like this.

Anna opened the door and gave him a beaming grin. "Is Chloe in there?" Clark asked her, glaring slightly at the woman that he knew was brainwashing Lex.

"Clark," Chloe greeted from behind Anna. She sounded…happy. Clark stepped into the room and blinked in shock at the picture before him. Chloe and Lucas were both dressed in what had to be their outfits for the wedding. Clark frowned.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

Chloe giggled and spun around in a small circle, showing off her gown. "Do you like it Clark?" she asked. He did, but that wasn't the point.

"It's nice," Clark said slowly, shooting her a look that he hoped she would understand. "Too bad you won't get to wear it."

"Don't be ridiculous," she laughed. Lucas sat down on the large plush bed and Anna took a tentative seat beside him. Clark frowned when Lucas didn't move away.

"What's going on?" Clark demanded again. Chloe looked back at him in confusion, as did Lucas. Anna was beginning to look a little suspicious…

"We're trying on our outfits for the wedding," Lucas rolled his eyes. "Jeez Sherlock."

"The tailors just finished them," Anna nodded, shooting him another suspicious look.

"The wedding…" Clark trailed off, eyebrows raised, silently begging Chloe to drop the act and get on with the inquisition. Why were they just hanging out with Anna anyways?

"Yeah, the wedding," Chloe told him slowly. She laughed and gestured to Anna. "You know, this weekend…Lucas and I are in the wedding party. Anna and Lex are getting married…what's wrong with you?"

Clark blinked back at her, not really finding this joke funny. He gave her a moment to loose her composure, break out laughing and tell him that she'd been just trying to mess with him. But Chloe didn't laugh; she just frowned and looked over at him in concern, wondering why he didn't seem to remember. Lucas looked confused too…

And then it hit him. '_Oh god_.'

TBC…


	5. Four

**Chapter Four**

_A/N: It's been a while. I have really no excuse, except for the fact that school's been hectic and, oh yeah (!) I have a life. I'm hoping to do some catch up over the summer holidays, but since I'll be working two jobs (one F/T and one P/T) don't expect updates like last summers!_

_But still, I feel bad, so tonight I am submitting not just one chapter, but 3! That's right! It's a three part update: I'm finishing off the Halloween ep and putting up the teaser for the next episode! Forgive me, please:0)_

Clark spotted the familiar blonde head in the hallway at school and broke into a run, hoping to corner Chloe and find out what was going on before classes started for the day. He'd left the mansion in quite a hurry the night before, freaked out about Chloe and Lucas's behaviour, and terrified that Serena would hypnotize him too and then no one would know what she was up to. There was no doubt in his mind that Chloe and Lucas were under some kind of spell, but he still wasn't sure what kind of effect powers like that would have on him…he didn't want to find out.

"Chloe!" he yelled, barreling down the hallway and almost flattening a pair of sophomore girls. "Sorry!" he called back at them and reached Chloe's locker, where she snapped her lock shut and looked up at him in concern.

"What's wrong Clark?" her eyes scanned him over skeptically.

"That's such an interesting question," Clark muttered. "Chloe, about Serena-"

"Who?"

"Anna," Clark corrected.

"Okay," she frowned. "What about her?"

"Do you remember going to Boston?" Clark asked her. Chloe looked back at him like he was crazy.

"Clark I've never been to Boston," she told him.

"No, Chloe we were there two days ago," Clark insisted, grabbing her arm and pulling her into a nearby empty classroom, closing the door behind them.

"What?" she laughed, clearly thinking that he was just messing around with her. He was a little annoyed that she didn't seem to know him better; he would never try that, especially with her. "Clark that's crazy."

"No Chloe," he grabbed both of her shoulders, his large hands completely encompassing her upper arms. "Two days ago you, and me, and Lucas flew to Boston and then took a car to Salem, Massachusetts. Don't you remember?"

"Clark I've never been to Boston," she told him again, now beginning to look like she thought he was crazy.

"No Chloe, it happened," he insisted, sounding a little desperate. If she didn't believe him, if he were in this alone, he didn't know what he'd do. "Two days ago we met a girl named Clarissa in Salem. She gave us a trunk full of evidence that Anna Anderson is really Serena Gilmore. You and Lucas went to confront Ser-- Anna about it yesterday, but by the time that I got there…you didn't remember anything."

"Clark that's crazy—"

"No Chloe, it's the truth!" he cried.

"I've never been to Boston, Clark," she cried back, shaking his hands off. "I've never been to Salem either."

"We were there two days ago—"

"No we weren't!" Chloe snapped. "Two days ago I was…"

Clark's eyebrows rose suddenly; Chloe was frowning now, trying to remember. "Where?" he demanded eagerly, grabbing her hand. "Where were you two days ago?"

"School, I guess—"

"No, Chloe," he shook his head. "You weren't at school yesterday or the day before. Ask your teachers, ask Cooper…you weren't here. You were with me and Lucas."

"Clark," she got the familiar, wall-of-weird look. "I don't remember ever going to Boston. Why were we there in the first place? Why would we fly half way across the country?"

"Because we found information that Anna is really a girl named Serena Gilmore, and that she was arrested for drugging a guy named Trent Ford," he hoped that it would jog her memory a bit. "Ford suddenly killed himself and Serena disappeared…then she turned up in Metropolis as Anna Anderson and did something to make Lex marry her. Chloe do you remember anything about this? About Anna?"

Chloe shook her head and looked panicked. "I— I remember meeting Anna and Lex in the coatroom on Halloween, and…now they're getting married?" she rubbed a hand against her temple, looking terrified at the idea of not remembering. "I hadn't really thought of it…I don't really remember what happened since Halloween. It's sort of…fuzzy, I guess. Like a dream you don't quite remember… Did she do this? Is she a meteor freak?"

Clark shook his head. "No Chloe," he made his face as serious as possible…so she would believe him. "She's a witch."

"What?" Chloe coughed. "Anna's a witch—"

Clark watched in shock as Chloe's words cut off mid-sentence, her mouth freezing momentarily and her eyes glazing over. Her normally green irises flashed a dark gray and she shook her head. "Sorry, what?"

"What?" Clark managed. Chloe's brow wrinkled and she looked at his hand on hers.

"What were we talking about?" she looked around the room; a little confused, and then turned back to him. He didn't answer. "Clark?"

The first bell rang and students began to stream into the classroom. Chloe shrugged and checked her watch. "We'll have to finish later okay?" she told him with a sympathetic smile. "I can't be late for Bio again."

Clark nodded dumbly. Chloe pulled her hand away and gave him a small wave. "See you later?" she asked, seemingly concerned about his weird lack of response.

"Yeah," he nodded and plastered on his patented never-fail-phony smile. "Later."

"Okay, bye," she called over her shoulder, hurrying out of the class and down the hall. Clark sighed. _Not again_.

* * *

Clarissa pulled the front door open with a sigh and looked up at the boy in front of her, a deep scowl marring her face. "Now what?" she rolled her eyes, leaving the door open for him to follow her and sank back down onto her couch. The boy hesitated in the doorway but eventually slipped inside the house and closed the door behind him. He didn't join her on the couch, but rather gave her a nervous, half-smile, that still managed to bring out his adorable dimples.

"Well…"

Clarissa took note of the worried look on his face, and the absence of the blonde girl and the other guy… she snorted unsympathetically. "Well, I did warn you didn't I?" she shrugged. His face fell and he crossed the room with two long strides, sinking into the easy chair across from her.

"She did something to them…a spell or something," he shook his head and looked so hopeless that Clarissa actually felt a small swell of pity for the poor toothpaste model. "I tried to make Chloe remember, but as soon as she was beginning to believe me…"

"Poof?" she added helpfully. He nodded. "What's your name again?"

"Clark Kent," he replied easily, seemingly not at all concerned that she could use any personal information to harm him. So trusting…it was kind of sweet. The world would eat him alive.

"Where are you from, Clark?"

This time he hesitated slightly. "Smallville, Kansas," he told her anyways.

"Well Clark Kent," she leaned forward and grabbed a pack of cigarettes off of the coffee table, lighting one and taking a quick drag before turning back to him. "I really suggest that you head on back to Kansas. If Serena's got all of your friends convinced that this is a good thing, then maybe you should just accept it."

"What?" his ultra-friendly demeanor dropped and a dumbstruck glaze came over his face. "You can't be serious? She's insane—"

"She's not hurting anyone Clark," Clarissa took another deep drag of her smoke and tapped the excess ash into a green glass ashtray. "And as long as she keeps getting her way, she probably never will hurt them."

"She's brainwashing them!" he insisted, raising to his feet and glaring down at her in disbelief. "Forcing them to do and think things that they never would of their own free will! It's a violation…it's just wrong!"

"But they're happy though, aren't they?" Clarissa stabbed the cigarette roughly into the glass, extinguishing the flame, and looked up at him pointedly. "Aren't they completely content and unaware of the situation? She's getting what she wants and making them believe that they're getting a happy family. That's not the worse thing I've ever heard—"

"She's lying to them, to all of them," Clark cut her off. "It's a lie, all of it. They aren't really happy—"

"Have you never told a lie Clark?" she rolled her eyes and lit another cigarette. Clark averted his eyes and she knew that he was indeed guilty. "Oh, so you're not just a liar, you're a hypocrite too?"

"There is a difference between lying to protect someone and lying to push your own agendas," he insisted, intense belief written all over his face.

"Oh really?"

"Yes," he nodded adamantly and sat back down in the chair, his eyes locked on her face and a sudden grin of realization stretching across his lips. "Like right now for instance…you're lying to me right now."

"Am I?" she took another drag.

"You're telling me to just drop it, just let her get away with this," Clark pointed out. "You're sitting there, right now, telling me that it's really not so bad letting her mess with people's minds like that. But just two days ago, you were sitting there warning us to stay away from her, that she was dangerous, and that we would get hurt."

"So I changed my mind," she shrugged. The cigarette wobbled a bit in her fingers as she stared back at him, her confidence not as high as it was a minute ago.

"Or you're lying to me now because you know just how far she would go to make sure that I don't stop her," Clark held her gaze assuredly. Clarissa steeled her expression and took one last drag from her cigarette, smothering it out on the glass beside the other one.

"Look kid," she rose to her feet and strode purposefully over to the door, twisting the old metal knob and pulling it open. "I told you last time you were here that I'd given you everything that I could to help you. That's it. If you can't use what you already have then you're out of luck."

"But I don't know what that stuff is, or what it's for," Clark protested, jumping to his feet. He wasn't stupid enough to get close enough to the door that she could push him out.

"Sorry—"

"No, there has to be a…a spell or something," he gritted his teeth at her attitude. "I'll perform it and everything…you just have to tell me what to do."

"Look," Clarissa told him honestly, still holding the door open. "I'm gonna be honest with you, okay? I finally got her out of my life, and I don't want her back in it again."

"So what? Now she's someone else's problem?" he shook his head in disbelief. "You don't care if she ruins countless lives as long as she stays out of yours?"

"You have no idea what she did to _my_ life," Clarissa cried back forcefully, the familiar feeling of white-hot rage sweeping over her body. Her free hand crackled with tiny electric currents of magical energy, purple and black and shocking. He saw it too, and his eyes widened more as her hair began to blow softly in the currents. "I will not give her the opportunity to do that to me again, _do you understand_?"

He nodded shortly. "I'm not asking you to stop her Clarissa," he insisted with such an honest expression that she couldn't help but believe him. "But I need you to help me, tell me how to stop her. The wedding is on Saturday; I'm running out of time. You said that she wreaked havoc with your life? Then help me stop her, and make sure that she can't do it to anyone else."

Clarissa stared back at him shakily, the electric currents fading away until they were nothing more that the after effects of static electricity. She gazed deeply into his clear blue eyes, reading…

She closed the door.

* * *

Clark watched grimly as all around the table people took turns tapping their glasses with their forks and making short, sweet speeches about the true meaning of love and finding your soul mate. Normally he wasn't a grinch about the subject of love, heck he'd found himself head over heels for more than one of his good friends in the past, but this was getting nauseating. That night when he tugged uncomfortably at his tie, it wasn't the usual this-stupid-thing-is-choking-me-where-the-heck-is-my-flannel. It was, oh-my-god-I-think-I-might-pass-out-if-one-more-person-drones-on-about-this-freakish-unholy-union.

Everything about the rehearsal dinner was so unusual that he had trouble believing that no one else was seeing that something wasn't right here. Unlike most of Lex's wedding parties, there were only four people in this one: Lex, She-Devil, Chloe and Lucas. Clark had agreed to be an usher, though he thought that it was a little unfair of Lex to expect him to actually seat all of the two hundred guests that had actually managed to make it on such short notice…if the wedding succeeded anyways. He looked pointedly across the table at Cooper, who was sitting beside Chloe, looking up at her as she gave an enthusiastic speech about how wonderful it was that Lex and Anna had found each other, and how their love had brought them all closer together…

Both Clark and Cooper looked down to hide their rolling eyes when Chloe turned a beaming smile at Lucas and began talking about how excited they were about their roles in the upcoming nuptials. The worst part wasn't the fact that Lucas nodded in agreement and jumped to his feet to give a speech of his own, and it wasn't the fact that Lex was looking happier than Clark had seen him since his last weddings; it was the fact that Chloe honestly seemed to believe every word that came out of her pink and polished mouth. It broke his heart to see her so happy over this, because the only thing that could make her smile like that lately was magic.

Thankfully, Cooper _wasn't_ under Anna's spell; he'd never actually spoken to her before the dinner. Clark had cornered him in the Torch office earlier that day and explained the whole situation to him, and had happily discovered that Cooper was pretty much up on the entire situation, up until Boston anyways. Apparently Clark hadn't been the only one concerned about Chloe's about face when it came to Anna. He caught Clark's eye again and a silent agreement passed across the table: they had to stop this. Clark wasn't crazy about Cooper and Chloe's developing relationship, but he was willing to ignore that for now, as long as Cooper was helping him with the Anna situation.

Clarissa had provided Clark with a spell that she thought would reverse the mind-wonky that she'd put on Chloe and the Luthors…hopefully. Clark was a little nervous about it though, because it was in a language he'd never heard of before, and some of the ingredients…

They had most of it assembled already, but he still needed to get one of the supplies later that night. The spell was ridiculously tricky, and more than once Clark had pondered the possibility that Clarissa was just messing with him; but he had no other choice. The spell called for "four slivers of oak, cut with a silver knife during the newest seconds of a new day", and the spell itself had to be cast when "the day reaches it's peak and the decline begins"; he was cutting the wood at midnight, and they were casting the spell at noon the next day, one hour before the ceremony was set to begin.

The dinner was over now and the dozen or so people around the table stood and began to mingle with each other. Clark leaned against a wall and sipped on his drink, watching the others. Lucas and Lex made their way to the bar together, laughing jovially about something. Lex said something and took a sip of champagne, and Lucas slung his arm around his brothers' shoulder and they both walked off towards a couple of the Luthor Corp board members. Chloe and Anna were standing next to a large floral display chatting eagerly with the _lady_ (and Clark used the term very loosely) that Lucas had brought with him.

Clark stared down at his shoes, wondering if exposing Anna was the right thing to do; they were all so happy right now. When the truth came out Lex would loose the brother that he'd always wanted, and Lucas would turn back into…well, Lucas. Chloe would stop smiling again, and she would go back to just existing in the world that she used to thrive in. Clark didn't know if he wanted to be the one to take that away from them.

* * *

Chloe smoothed down the silk of her dress and knocked purposefully on the large double doors in front of her. "Come in," Lex's voice called through the thick wood. Chloe slipped into the room quickly, careful not to close her dress or the ribbons from her bouquet in the doors behind her. "Chloe," Lex greeted her with a small smile.

"Hey," she smiled back. "Anna sent me to make sure that you put on the right tie. I tried to tell her that if anyone can tell the difference between purple, and lighter purple, it would be you, but…well she wanted to be sure."

He smiled and held up the purple tie that matched her dress. "This one right?" Chloe nodded and sat on the edge of the large dresser, careful not to wrinkle her dress. He turned towards the full-length mirror and began to mechanically tie his tie, his movements precise and practiced. Chloe watched his hands in the reflection.

"I've been trying to think of a name for the Anna chapter in your book," she kicked her feet back and forth, the heels bumping against the wood of the dresser in a rhythmic pattern.

"If you pick "Third Time's the Charm" you can leave right now," he told her with a small amused grin.

"No," she shook her head and smiled back. "I was thinking just_ Anna_; short and sweet. It sums it all up pretty good I think."

Lex shrugged and caught her eyes in the mirror. "Whatever you want," he conceded, tilting his head now to make sure that his tie was perfectly straight. "I trust you."

He said it so absentmindedly that she couldn't help but grin, realizing that he'd never said those words to her before; he'd probably only ever said them to a handful of people in his whole life. She jumped off of the dresser and crossed the room over to him quickly, throwing her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly before he knew what hit him. Lex laughed and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, squeezing her back.

"I can't believe you're getting married," she squealed uncharacteristically. "It's so strange to think of you being all settled down. Two weeks ago you were overworked and had the weight of the entire world on you. And now…I didn't think I'd ever see you so happy."

She felt him smile into her shoulder and let her arms drop from around him. They both pulled away and she beamed up at him, full of a feeling that she'd never felt before. She couldn't even describe it…but it felt like pride. It felt like a girl who was happy for her brother, like she knew that he did well for himself.

There was another knock on the door. Chloe frowned and hurried over to open the door a crack and peek out into the hallway. As soon as she realized that it wasn't Anna (that was bad luck, not that they needed it) she opened the door wide to admit Lucas. "Is it the purple one or the other purple one?" Lucas asked them, holding up two ties. Chloe rolled her eyes and pointed to the proper tie. "Thanks," Lucas muttered and flung the rejected tie over her shoulder.

Chloe sighed and folded the tie up nicely, setting it on Lex's dresser; he'd probably need _another_ purple tie at some point. "This is the gayest colour in the world," Lucas sighed pitifully at his reflection and sloppily tied his tie. He frowned at himself and then retied it, three times, until it was as straight as Lex's.

"And yet it suits you," Chloe piped in with a snarky smirk. He gave her the finger.

* * *

Clark took a deep breath and peeked around the corner of the hallway he was currently hiding in. He stared hard through the doors to Anna's room, his x-ray vision activating; she was alone. Chloe had left the room twenty minutes ago, and a quick glance down the hallway confirmed that she and Lucas were with Lex in his room. He checked his watch to make sure that it was time to move: 11:50. Perfect.

Clark moved as stealthily as he could down the hallway, not wanting to alert anyone else in the house. He knocked on Anna's door (he _did_ have manners after all, and thought it would be rude to burst in and catch her changing). "Come in…unless you're Lex," she called through the door. "He can't come in!"

Clark pushed the door open and slipped into the room, locking the handle behind him quickly so she couldn't see. Anna looked up at him in surprise, but quickly covered it up with a sweet smile. "Hello Clark," she greeted.

"Hi," he nodded. "Serena."

He'd expected her to at least try to pretend that she didn't know what he was talking about, try to deny it or _something_. Instead she merely dropped the brush in her hand and stood up. He took an involuntary step backwards as she approached him, even though he knew that she probably didn't know how to _really_ hurt him.

"You don't seem too surprised," Clark noted, trying to keep the stammer out of his voice. "Guilty conscience?"

"You wish," she rolled her eyes. He noted that they were a beautiful green colour, almost hypnotic actually. "Truth is that I already suspected that you knew too, ever since Chloe and Lucas tried to confront me."

"You didn't seem too worried though."

"Why?" she shrugged and smiled superiorly at him. "Look at how easy it was to take care of them. Invulnerability has an intoxicating effect Clark."

"Well I wouldn't know," he lied, now standing his ground and stopping his retreat. Her eyes weren't _that_ great anyways.

"Sure," she shrugged again. "Now what are we going to do about this Clark? I can't have you running around trying to tell everyone my secret…not that it'll do you much good. I assume that you've tried to convince Chloe already. Did it work?"

"You know that it didn't," Clark glared back at her. "Your spell made her forget everything all over again."

"Yeah, I figured that whoever had tipped her off in the first place would try to do it again," she told him nonchalantly. "So I just altered the spell for her and Lucas, just enough so that they wouldn't remember."

"You say that like you think it's okay," Clark spat. "It's not right to just go around playing with people's minds like they're…toys or something."

"They _are_ just toys Clark," she told him sincerely. He felt chilled to the bone. "Lex, Chloe, Lucas…all of them. Besides, it's not like they're unhappy."

"They would be if they knew what you were doing to them," Clark insisted. "If Lex knew why he was really marrying you…if he knew about Trent Ford…"

"You've been doing your homework," she rolled her eyes. "That's good Clark. A growing boy needs to exercise his mind as well as his body— we wouldn't want you to just stand there and look pretty _all_ of the time."

"This has to end," Clark ignored her snub and took a couple of steps towards her, until he was right in front of her and towering. "Right now. If you would just lift the spells now on your own that would be great."

"And if I don't?"

The grandfather clock in the foyer began to ring, echoing throughout the mansion. Twelve o'clock. Clark tensed and reached a hand into his pocket, extracting a small jar of various crushed up ingredients. Serena frowned at the jar.

"Oh, we're doing _this_?" she sighed. He pulled the lid off of the jar violently and paused, struggling to remember the passage he was supposed to recite. Clarissa had written in down for him, but that didn't mean that he could actually understand or remember it.

"In corpus vitae…"

Serena began to mutter something under her breath, and even though Clark kept up his speech, he knew it was a spell. And he knew that he never had a chance at this. "…dora espiratae…" he continued.

She smirked at him and cried out, her hand darting in his direction. She had retreated several feet but somehow the jar he held in his hand shattered as if she'd knocked it out of his hand, and the contents fell to the ground and scattered. He continued his speech just in case; maybe the ingredients didn't need to be in his hand, as long as they were close by.

She cried out again and a burst of red light erupted from her hand, knocking him painfully in the stomach and knocking the wind out of him momentarily. "Had to stop you Clark," she looked mildly surprised that he hadn't keeled over from the blow. "Your Latin sucks."

Clark didn't get a chance to reply. She strode over to him quickly and grabbed his tie in her hand, turning his head up and catching his gaze. Clark watched amazedly as her eyes grew cloudy, the green gradually turning to a dark, murky gray. In the back of his mind he felt a strange sensation, almost like a mental tug, but he ignored it. His eyes began to burn from staring and he blinked quickly. It was enough though; she released him and her eyes quickly cleared back to the pretty green that they were before.

This time she looked openly surprised that her tricks hadn't worked. He assumed that it had never happened to her before. "Nice trick," Clark smirked back at her, having caught his breath again. "My turn?"

"No," she shook her head. This time when the red light hit him, it hurt; cutting through his body like electricity. The hairs on his arms stood up as she hit him and he figured that it must be an electrical current. Despite his usual strength and abilities, he felt himself being affected by the current. Clark's legs gave out first and he fell to his knees momentarily, before those too couldn't support him and he crashed to the floor, writhing in silent pain.

He briefly registered the pain stopping and lay gasping for air on the floor. "Sorry Clark," her voice was dim in his ear and he had to blink several times to make out the sight of her standing above him. "But I can't let you ruin this for me."

He tried to reply, but she hit him again, this time a blunt pain registered in the general area of his left temple. Then Clark's world went black.

* * *

Chloe shifted the lovely bouquet into her left hand and stared at the couple in front of her with rapt attention. The minister finished his spiel about the sanctity of marriage and asked _the_ question. "If there is anyone here that objects to this union let them speak now, or forever hold their peace."

No one answered and Chloe breathed a sigh of relief. She'd been a little concerned ever since Clark had failed to show up…not that she thought he had any real objections. Rather she just had the familiar feeling that something was going on. The minister continued and she couldn't help but grin at the happy look on Lex's face. Lucas caught her eye; he was listening intently to the minister, his hand twitching minutely towards his pants pocket, ready to grab the ring he was holding. It was cute.

Her mind must have been wandering, because the next thing she knew, Anna was repeating her vows after the minister. Chloe watched her carefully. She looked tired, drained almost. 'Probably couldn't sleep last night,' she thought.

"Lex," the minister continued. "Do you take this woman to be—" the minister paused, staring at something down the aisle, behind the couple. Chloe felt her stomach drop and she followed his gaze, as did everyone else.

Clark stood half way down the aisle, his suit jacket ripped in several spots and his hair completely disheveled. Beside him was a young woman, wearing jeans and a U Mass t-shirt. Chloe blinked at the woman, feeling a sudden sense of déjà vu.

"Clark," she managed to get out, concern for her friend taking precedence over even the ceremony. She took a couple of steps towards him. "What happened?"

Before Clark could answer her, Chloe felt someone shove her from behind. She let out a yelp of surprise and stumbled, dropping her bouquet. Lucas grabbed her arm to steady her and they stared in shock at Anna, who had pushed Chloe roughly out of the way to get a better view down the aisle towards Clark and the strange woman. The stranger raised a hand high into the air, her fist clutched tightly around what looked like a piece of tree bark, and the air suddenly felt electrically charged. "I was so upset at not being invited," the girl smirked directly at Anna. "I just had to stop by. _Reverso_!" she cried forcefully, bolts of red lightening shooting out of her closed fist and charging straight towards Chloe, Lucas and Lex.

Chloe had only enough time to cry out before the lightening hit her. An intense shock passed over her body momentarily, and then suddenly her head was flooded with…memories. In the space of about five seconds Chloe remembered Boston…Amy…Clarissa…Trent Ford…Serena Gilmore. Familiar feelings of intense dislike returned too.

"She's a witch!" both her and Lucas yelled out at the same time, both of them pointing to Anna—Serena. Clark sighed in what looked like relief.

"W-what?" Lex stammered uncharacteristically and looked at Anna in confusion.

Anna ignored him and charged down the aisle at Clarissa with an angered cry. Anna raised a hand and threw what looked suspiciously like a fireball at Clarissa. Chaos erupted, the guests shrieked simultaneously and scrambled out of their chairs, hurrying away from the aisle, and Serena and Clarissa continued to hit each other with various spells. Chloe, Lucas, Lex and Clark stood still as statues, watching with complete shock, and the minister and the other guests fled from the garden.

Another fireball hit Clarissa, and this time she cried out in pain. That seemed to jumpstart Clark, and he hurried over to help. He didn't get far; Serena spun around and shot a current of energy at him, causing him to double over in pain, before turning back to Clarissa.

Chloe shook Lucas's hand off of her arm, where it had been resting unnoticed since she'd stumbled. She'd had enough of this.

Lex was watching the scene so intently that he didn't even react when she pushed him out of her way and hurried over to the rows of chairs. She grabbed one of the white wooden chairs and picked it up by the leg, collapsing it.

Chloe strode determinedly over to stand behind Serena. "Hey!" she yelled. Serena spun around quickly to look at Chloe. Chloe swung the chair up and hit her over the head before she could make a move to stop her.

They all watched Serena's body crumple to the ground like a rag doll, her eyes closing. Knocked out.

Chloe dropped the chair onto the grass and used a hand to push the stray hairs out of her forehead. "Bitch."

TBC…


	6. Closer

**Closer**

Clark knocked tentatively on the door to Lex's study, not entirely sure if he actually wanted to go in or not. "Come in," Lex answered from the other side. Clark pushed open the heavy door and walked in. Lex was standing up on the second level, with the books, looking down curiously at him. "Hello Clark."

"Hi," Clark smiled awkwardly and walked farther into the study but made no move to join him upstairs, choosing instead to crane his neck back and look up at Lex. Lex was wearing his usual, cool, "I'm-handling-it-just-fine" face, but Clark wasn't fooled.

"I'm glad you're here Clark," Lex told him, making his way over to the stairs and down to the main floor. "I owe you a thank-you Clark. You stopped me from making an enormous mistake." Lex held his hand out but Clark couldn't bring himself to shake it, something was making him feel guilty.

"To be honest Lex, I almost didn't stop her," Clark confessed. "A part of me really didn't want to."

Lex frowned. "I know that we haven't exactly been as close as we used to be Clark—"

"No! That's not why," Clark assured him. "It's just…I know that what she did was wrong, and that she needed to stopped, but a part of me really thinks that you all might have been happier if I had just let it happen."

"Clark that's crazy," Lex shook his head and made a beeline for the bar. He opened a new bottle of scotch and poured himself a glass. "I would never be happy in a marriage that I was tricked into."

"But you _were_ happy, Lex," Clark smiled sadly. "You have no idea what it's like to see the people that you care about get what they've been looking for, and be the one to take that away from them."

"I really wasn't looking for a wife Clark," Lex assured him.

"But you were looking for a brother," Clark countered. "And apparently so was Lucas. You remember the rehearsal dinner, what Lucas said…what _Chloe_ said. Lex she was really smiling for the first time in months! She was _Chloe_ again: _living_ in the world instead of just _existing_ in it. I took all of that away."

Lex looked at him seriously, his grip tightening visibly on the glass in his hand. "Clark, I'm not going to try to pretend that we weren't happy," Lex told him steadily. "We were all…" he trailed off uncomfortably before starting again. "Serena Gilmore gave us a lot of the things that we wanted, but none of us would have wanted them like that. Chloe wants to be happy again, but she needs to get there on her own. You know that given the choice she wouldn't want to give up her freewill for the lies that Serena built. They were just smoke and mirrors Clark: pretty little untruths that she used to keep us from resisting. Chloe and Lucas would _never_ want that. Neither would I."

Clark nodded. "You're right," he admitted. "Lex I'm just scared that a part of you will always resent me for letting you know that it was just smoke and mirrors."

"If it scares you so much Clark, why did you do it in the first place? Why didn't you just let it happen?"

Clark didn't even hesitate. "Because it was wrong," he answered immediately. "If I had stood by and let you believe it I would have been no better than her."

Lex smiled and took another sip of his drink. "Exactly Clark. I would have resented you if you had let her get away with it. I learned a long time ago that you always do the right thing. Don't shatter that illusion too."

The sound of approaching footsteps echoed off of the stone walls, and they both turned to see Chloe enter the study through the same door that Clark had. "Lucas is gone," she told them, shrugging helplessly. "I went up to his room…all of his stuff's gone."

"I didn't really expect him to stick around," Lex walked back over to the bar to refill his drink. Clark couldn't bring himself to look at Chloe, couldn't stand to see the constant morose look on her face, so he studied his shoes. No one seemed to know what to say, and the uncomfortable silence compelled Clark to say something.

"I think I'm going to go," he announced with false enthusiasm. "Farmer's market tomorrow morning…last one of the season…gotta get up early…"

Chloe raised an eyebrow at that and Lex just nodded. "See you later," Clark had to refrain from zipping out of the room.

"Bye," Chloe called just as he was closing the door behind him. Clark sighed deeply and began the long trek to the front door. Feeling the need to hear Chloe say something else, he activated his super hearing while he walked, narrowing in on the study.

"I think I'm going to go to bed," Chloe was saying. "Good night."

"Good night," Lex replied absently. Clark could see him in his mind, toying with his glass of scotch, swishing the amber liquid around thoughtfully. Chloe's footsteps once again echoed in Clark's ears, followed by the telltale creak of the door opening. "Chloe?" Lex called out.

"Yes?"

"Do you believe in love at first sight?" Lex asked her, surprising Clark…and probably Chloe too.

"I- I don't know," Chloe answered. "Do you?"

Clark could almost see Lex smirk, shake his head, and could hear his soft chuckle.

"No."

**End**


End file.
